Thursday, September 22, 2011

So NWG has finally come and gone. True to the plan we left for Gorey Friday evening, stopping only for a quick bite to eat and drink for later. We arrived at the venue at around 11pm and as planned myself and a friend Jason Lane were set to play a friendly as we had never played before, despite being from the same city. And so a Grey Knight off there would be. As a reminder my Crowe themed list can be found here

Jason's list, despite also being Grey Knights, was drastically different to mine, a good example of how diverse the Codex is. Enter the Draigo-Wing.

It would be an interesting dynamic with Draigo having the edge in combat meaning I would have to avoid him like the plague and try take out the transports ASAP. Note Draigo, the Librarian and the 4 Paladins went in the Storm Raven while the 5 man Paladin sqaud went in the Land Raider.

We rolled up a random mission and deployment and got a Pitched Battle Capture and Control. I rolled higher and got to choose sides and deploy first. I put my objective in the lower left ruins and put a Razorback in range with the Ven Dread nearby. I put another Razorback and Dread nearby in mid field and pushed everything else far east to maximise cover. Jason put a Razorback and Land Raider far east also to face the bulk of my army and kept the Storm Raven in reserve. I won the roll off for Infiltrators and put my Vindicare with the main army facing Jason's Land Raider. As such Jason couldn't get his Vindicare near my main army, and with me probably going first, he decided to Outflank instead. He tried to steal first turn and failed.

Turn 1

The OXI's Razorback (the eastern-most one) moved far forward to hide in the ruins while most of the rest of the army moved off east to get better firing lines to Jason's vehicles.

The Vindicare kicked off the shooting phase by Exploding the Land Raider. One of the Paladins took a wound in the blast. The rest of the army shot at the Razorback, Immobolising it.

The Paladins moved out through the terrain a full 6" and shot the OXI's Razorback, blowing up and killing 3 Purifiers in the explosion.

Turn 2

In my turn Crowe came on and ran up behind the Vindicare. The Land Raider went full throttle toward the Paladins as did the OXI and his Purifiers. The rest of the army replicated the previous turn.

The Vindicare took a shot at the Paladins, killing one. Everything else shot at the Razorbac, blowing it up. The Terminators and Purifiers followed up by assaulting the Paladins and completely wiping them out.

Unfortunately for Jason none of his reserves came on. His Purifiers ran forward shot at my Terminators, and then assaulted them. Unfortunately they only killed two of them and the Terminators struck back wiping out the Purifiers, consolidating onto Jason's objective.

Turn 3-4

In turn 3 I found myself with nothing to do so I rejigged my army. In Jason's turn 3 his Vindicare came on my side of the board and took a Turbo-Penetrator shot at Crowe, but failed to pass his Iron Halo. In retaliation Crowe charged the Vindicare and killed him. Jason Followed up as Draigo's Storm Raven finally entered play, going Flat Out on the western flank as was to be expected, and having Shrouding cast on it.

Turn 5

Most of my army moved west to respond to Draigo and managed to shoot down his Storm Raven. Draigo was in trouble so charged along with his unit into the Purifier's Razorback, but they only managed to Immobolize it, and the game ended then 1-0 to me.

Conclusions

By turn 3 the outcome became predicatable as the Storm Raven still hadn't shown up, allowing me to pick apart Jason's army peacemeal. If Draigo had flown in for support on turn 2 it would have been a very different game, albeit it at least would have given me something to do in turn 3.

So after the game we realised that the whiskey was already gone and everyone was gone home; turned out it was 3am somehow. So drunk as monkies we stumbled back to the hotel and crashed ready for a morning of war.

Next morning it was up bright and early and straight to the hotel for game 1...actually that's a lie, it was straight to the bathroom to get sick everywhere and then onto the shop for breakfast and then onto the hotel for game 1 :evilgrin:

Game 1 was Spearhead Annihilation and I was fortunate enough to get paired against Tyranids and on the same table I had played my game on the night before. Their general, Sean O'Regan was reportedly new to the game, however I got the distinct feeling during the game that despite this he knew his army well and was a competent general. I'm not 100% sure on his list but it was roughly as below:

Hive TyrantLash Whip and Bonesword, Leech Essence, Paroxysm

Hive Guard

30x Termagaunts

5x Tyranid WarriorsBarbed Strangler, Deathsplitters

9x Tyranid WarriorsLash Whips and Boneswords, Scything Talons

8x GenestealersBroodlord, Scything Talons

14x Gargoyles

CarnifexHeavy Venom Cannon

CarnifexHeavy Venom Cannon

CarnifexHeavy Venom Cannon

This doesn't add up to 2000pts so there's obviously more items in there but if there were they never came up and/or I don't know them (first game against Nids since 4th edition).

Sean rolled highest for table quarters and chose to go first deploying in the north-west leaving me to deploy in the south-east. His fighty Warriors and Genestealers were both outflanking with the Gaunts and shooty Tyranids staying in reserve. He opted to Deep Strike the Gargoyles. I spread across my deployment zone to maximise shooting lanes (note the map is wrong as the western-most Razorback obviously couldn't be that far west and was in fact on the edge line of the deployment zone). The Vindicare Infiltrated into the other quarter on my side to get clear shots at the monsters.

Turn 1

All of Sean's monsters moved up around the building taking shots at the transports, and succesfully wrecking the eastern most one.

In my turn the disembarked Purifiers moved into the nearby ruins and the Dreadnought moved into the wreck of the Rhino. The other Dreadnought moved up northward to get clear shots at the monsters.

The Vindicare started things out by doing two wounds to nearest Carnifex, and two remaining Razorbacks finished it off. The northern Dread managed to take out the Hive Guard while the Land Raider managed a wound on the lead Carnifex.

Turn 2

Sean got some good reserve rolls, getting on the fighty Warriors, the Gaunts, the Genestealers and the Gargoyles. The Gargoyles landed right on front of the Land Raider but failed synapse and got stuck shooting at it. The Gaunts failed synapse too, sending them into a nearby ruin. The Warriors came on the wrong flank only able to assault the Vindicare, however the Genestealers came in behind my army and managed a multi-charge on the two Dreadnoughts.

The Warriors easily over ran the Vindicare, while the Genestealers actually lost combat by blowing up one Dread and took two wounds from it. They held however and piled in to the second Dread. Meanwhile the Carnifexes had both moved toward my army through terrain.

I decided to take no chances and disembarked the OXI's Purifiers and the Terminators. The Land Raider and Psyback also advanced on a bit to make room while the Ven Dread moved backward to draw a bead on the fighty Warriors.

In phenomenal turn of shooting the Ven Dread and Lasback combined to take out 5 fighty Warriors (5 failed cover saves), while the Psyback and Land Raider teamed up to take down already wounded lead Carnifex.

In the assault phase the charge was sounded as the OXI lead his unit against the Gargoyles and the remaining foot unit charged the Genestealers. The OXI's unit completely anihilated the Gargoyles between Cleansing Flame and combat attacks while the Terminators wiped out the Genestealer and the Purifiers took the Broodlord down to his lastoud, though not before he killed three of them. The Broodlord fled, and managed to get away, the Terminators consolidating back away from the Hive Tyrant and the Purifiers skulking after the Broodlord.

Turn 3

The Nids were a bit weary after that last turn but Sean pressed on. The remaining reserves came on and made a beeline for the Broodlord's likely position after he fled again. The Gaunts failed synapse and stayed in their ruin. The Hive Tyrant and Carnifex each set their sights on respective quarry (the Purifiers and the recently arrived Crowe) while the fighty Warriors moved behind cover. Shooting was completely ineffective for the Nids and so it was on to the Grey Knights' turn.

With the Hive Tyrant closing in I needed to make strides to stop him, so I offered him up the Land Raider, moving it 12" toward him hoping he would get tempted to charge it next turn. The western units rejigged for shooting lanes and charge set-ups for next turn. Elsewhere the Purifiers moved out to try take out the Broodlord.

The Purifiers opened up on the Broodlord and though the Psycannon fluffed it the lowly Storm Bolter took him out. The two remaining Dreads took out the remaining Warriors while the combined efforts of the Razorbacks and Land Raider took 3 wounds from the Hive Tyrant. The Terminators, unable to see him shot at the shooty Warriors and killed one. The remaining Purifiers then tried to finish of the Hive Tyrant but failed.

Turn 4

The Hive Tyrant took the bait and charged the Land Raider, wrecking it. The Gaunts passed Synapse and moved out toward my army while the remaining Warriors moved up to the top of the nearby ruins. The last Carnifex kept toward Crowe. The Warriors took out one of the Purifiers.

Crowe leapt from his cover, charging the last Carnifex and wounding it. The lone Purifier on the eastern flank retreated into cover also to try save the Kill Point.

The OXI's unit decided against charging the Hive Tyrant and shot him down instead. Attempts at the Warriors failed.

Turn 5

The Gaunts moved up but were out of range while the Warriors failed to kill anything. Crowe kept hacking at the Carnifex finally seeing its undoing with two wounds and the last from a failed Fearless check.

As the last act of the game Crowe and the Purifers with OXI charged the Gaunts, activating a double Cleansing Flame which killed 25 of the Gaunts with 4 more falling in combat, the last caught and run down. With that the game ended 8-3 to the Grey Knights.

Conclusions

Well there's not a whole lot that can be said. The match-up was horrible for Tyranids, especially a Purifier based force, and the horrible luck of turn 2 didn't help Sean one bit. However he was quite the sport and kept his head high throughout the game. This would be a 19-1 to me and put me up to Table 1 for game 2 against Colin Murray and his double Lash Prince CSM. Report coming soon.